Zebaztian Kadestam is next Ben Askren challenger after Agilan Thani?

Zebaztian “The Bandit” Kadestam made a successful ONE debut on May 26, Friday, in Kallang, Singapore. He defeated Luis “Sapo” Santos in the welterweight division at “ONE Championship: Dynasty of Heroes” via knockout at 2:18 minutes of Round 3.

(photos from ONE Championship)

In 2015, Santos faced ONE Welterweight World Champion Ben “Funky” Askren during the main event of “ONE Championship 26: Valor of Champions” in the Philippines but it ended in a no-contest after an eye poke in the first round. In the same year, they were supposed to have a rematch at “ONE Championship 32: Pride of Lions” in Singapore but Santos missed weight.

In Askren’s post-fight interview at “ONE Championship: Dynasty of Heroes,” he said if ONE Middleweight World Champion Vitaly Bigdash still would not fight him, he would like to have Kadestam as his next challenger. Here is a short interview I had with the Philippines-based Swedish MMA fighter two days after his victory over Santos:

Was joining ONE Championship part of the plan when you were still starting as an MMA fighter?

I’ve always had my eyes on ONE. I love the rule set and their way of promoting martial arts instead of trash talk and that sort of things like other promotions. So I’m very happy things went how it went and that I was able to do this on short notice.

Give us three ONE fighters that you want to fight after Luis Santos.

To be honest, I want to fight Ben Askren three times.

Who are the people who significantly contributed to your recent win?

There are so many people that have helped me over the years. I couldn’t have done this without any of them, the people who have been with me in ups and downs no matter what.